Posts Tagged ‘kiltimagh’

It’s time for a bumper post. This one will include all the answers to those mentioned in Spot the ball-room and one more.

No, I haven’t remembered what the tie-breaker question was that we answered correctly with “3”. However, I have remembered a spot prize question, which the quiz master posed mid-way through the night. Here it is:

Name either of the Westmeath men who have played at centre-field in an All-Ireland football final in the last 15 years.

I’ll give you the answer to that at the very end of the post. If I was to give you a clue, I’d say don’t take it too seriously…

The quiz master delighted in a bit of word play. Whether this was intentional or not, I’m not sure. At one point he created a hubbub by mistaking the ‘l’ for an ‘r’ in a question relating to venue of the Pope’s election. I’m sure that was deliberate. However, his introduction of the raffle prize (a ticket to the All-Ireland football final) as one of the “most converted” items around probably wasn’t.

I had a definite sense of deja vu on Thursday night when I sat down in the Park Hotel, Kiltimagh, to await the start of quiz in aid of the local GAA club. We took part in a quiz there last Easter and, as it was available, I sat down at the same table we’d used that night. History was to repeat, in another way, shortly after when the quiz master started speaking and I realised it was the same man who hosted the Karate club quiz last week.

The host was in more ebullient form this time. He started off by telling us all that first prize was going to be a set of Kiltimagh GAA Club hoodies, whilst the runners-up would be getting a matching set of windbreakers. “No, no – only joking!” First prize was actually four night’s B&B, sponsored by the venue. (Just like that night last Easter, funnily enough.)

The runners-up were to receive four free tickets to the Mayo county senior football final. Remembering last year’s dire battle between Ballintubber and Castlebar Mitchells, we wondered if this was also a joke… *

After round 3, we were three points behind the leaders. Frustratingly, we could never get closer than a two point deficit for the rest of the quiz. Our final score of 84 was good enough for joint-third, two points behind tables 6 and 15. Thus, a tie-breaker was needed to separate first and third. However, at least we got to dodge the county final tickets.

Here are the answers to the questions posted yesterday, in Wax on, wax off.

As well as three picture rounds, this quiz featured an audio round. However, I wasn’t as impressed with this as I had been with the photos.

Firstly, the quizmaster would start playing the tune whilst still outlining the question, in the manner of a DJ on local radio. When asked, politely, by one of the contestants to perhaps ask the question first and then play the tune, he didn’t endear himself to the crowd by snapping back “Do you want to host the quiz?”

The questions in this round were a bit of a hotch-potch, including the likes of “What town is this singer from?” The worst incident though, involved track 6, which was Bounce, a current record in the hit parade. He told us at least three times that he wanted “the singer here… just the singer.”

Now, I knew that this was by Calvin Harris but I also knew that it was ‘Calvin Harris featuring [somebody]’. No great leap of knowledge this, as it’s clearly a female voice singing. This must be what they’re looking for here. Who was it again? Sad to say, I was the only one at our table who’d heard of it so I spent the rest of the round racking the brain, trying to dig out the answer. Thankfully, this period of labour did produce an answer: Kelis. Chuffed, I scribbled her name down and handed up our answer sheet.

10 minutes later, when the answers to the music round were announced, it turned out they were looking for …. Calvin Harris. The quizmaster even added “… and, apparently, that’s a man…” Grrr.

My 100% start to the new table quiz season is over. In truth, it only lasted 24 hours. On Friday night last myself, Ger, Breda and Ger’s sister Marie took part in the Karate Club quiz in Kiltimagh – where we lost by a point.

Now, regular readers to the blog will know that there’s nothing I hate more than losing by a point. It makes the after-quiz post mortems all the more depressing as you’re always looking out for the one that got away: the point that could have saved you from defeat and at least got you into a playoff. That said, by my count we actually had 87 points (the winning score) but the scorers’ table obviously didn’t agree. If the top prize had been anything other than four bottles of wine I may have gone up for a chat!

The quiz itself was very good in places but also very annoying in others. At one point the quizmaster told us “don’t blame me, I didn’t write them!” but later on, when the (excellent) flags round was presented, he said “anyone who’s been at one of my quizzes before will know that I love this kind of thing…” So did he create the questions or didn’t he? Was there a co-operative in use here?!

We were also asked if it was true or false that, at the proprietor’s upcoming birthday (next week), he would be 45 years of age. “Where is he?” someone asked.

We guessed false and it turned out we were right. Alas, we did manage to get four of that round wrong which, given they were all 50/50 shots, was a bit of a disaster. That’s why we didn’t win this quiz.

Here are the answers for the questions posted yesterday. As I explained, some questions had several answers before we got to the right one. In one case, alas, the correct answer was never found, leaving those of us who had submitted it at a disadvantage.

The second question of the night was: “Who is the Prime Minister of France?”. This was quite a hard one for so early in the quiz, I thought. Well, it turned out to be a mistake as the answer given was Nikolas Sarkozy. I doubt I need to tell you that M. Sarkozy is the President of France and, as a matter of fact, has never served as Prime Minister. The disagreement expressed by the contestants led the quiz master into a hasty retreat. Literally – he walked back to the correcting table!

After a brief discussion he came back to the mic and announced that the answer was actually Alain Juppé and the three teams in the room who’d answered thus would be getting a point. This surprised Ger on our team who, after much mental effort during the round, had come up with the name François Fillon. However, he wasn’t 100% sure about it and, presuming that the correct answer had actually been frantically looked up, let it pass.

The following morning he went to the trouble of finding out and, sure enough, M. Fillon is the Prime Minister of France. Alain Juppé was Prime Minister once – between 1995 and 1997! That said, he is the current Minister of Foreign Affairs. Perhaps, not having the ability to look up the answer, the correctors simply totted up which one (other than Sarkozy!) was given by most teams and presumed that was right?

I hope everyone had a pleasant Easter. As I stated last week, there will be no weekly quiz at Gilligan’s tonight. However, that’s not to say that I don’t have any tales to tell.

Last Thursday night, myself, Ger, his good lady Breda and Gilligan’s regular Mick took part in a quiz for the Western Care Association in the Park Hotel, Kiltimagh. A quiz for a good cause and a quiz which didn’t threaten marital harmony.

You see, Ger and Breda have a running debate/argument about whether one should always give back prize money won at a charity quiz. Breda says yes, Ger says no. Call us what you like but I agree with Ger. You’ve already contributed to the charity with your entrance fee and (almost certainly) tickets for the raffle. That’s what the quiz is for – it’s a vehicle to get people to make those particular donations. Of course, certain winning teams, either through knowing the organisers, supporting what the charity does or just because they have a generous nature, choose to redonate their winnings. That’s fine. Indeed, it’s admirable. But it’s still their choice.

Which is a long way of telling you that Thursday night’s quiz didn’t have a cash prize up for grabs. Instead, a “weekend break in the Mill Park Hotel to the winning team” was promised. The Mill Park Hotel is in Donegal and none of us thought that too far to travel for a free weekend. 🙂